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The finances and spending of large nonprofit hospitals that receive tax breaks while earning hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues and paying seven-figure executive salaries are examined in a special report by investigative journalism site 100Reporters.

I believe nonprofits who chose to reduce their planned giving and endowment building efforts to chase current dollars made a mistake that may cost them their very survival. Read what The Chronicle of Philanthropy article reported and come to your own conclusion. It's not at all about planned giving, it's about donor loyalty.

Facing Burnout as a Consultant? Read This. | Betsy J. Baker: If you’re reading this, chances are that you’re ready to stop the madness of too many client demands, multiple deadlines and endless to-do lists. You’re ready to reclaim your freedom and enjoy life – which is what you thought owning your own business would bring you to begin with, right?

Are you really proud to be a fundraiser? A new manifesto for fundraising | UK Fundraising: Last week, I addressed the Institute of Fundraising London Group’s First Thursday meeting on the subject of pride in the profession of fundraising. I explored whether fundraisers ‘really’ felt proud to be a fundraiser – the emphasis being on ‘really’ rather than proud, because I am not sure when fundraisers are being told that they should stand up and be proud of what they do that they actually know what it is they are supposed to be proud of.

Instead of spreading its donated funds to a wide array of worthwhile organizations, the United Way told its traditional recipients several weeks ago that it intends to target most of its funds and energies during the next four-year funding cycle toward one goal: raising third-grade reading scores in selected mostly urban school districts. Its other main objectives will be reducing the number of people who are food insecure, increasing the number of older adults whose basic needs are met at home and supporting emergency services in the areas of disaster, housing and safety.

Marci Ronald, the local United Way's vice president for community impact, said this "Collective Impact" approach allows United Way to address the area's most important needs in a very strategic way.

Will Knight challenge hurt or help nonprofit fundraisers?: More than 100 somewhat anxious nonprofit fundraisers gathered Friday at The Association of Fundraising Professionals Oregon and Southwest Washington chapter conference at the Multnomah Athletic Club to discuss what to do about the $1 billion fundraising challenge from Nike’s Phil Knight to Oregon Health and Science University.

Associated Community Services, one of the country’s biggest charity telemarketers and the target of investigations in multiple states over its fundraising methods, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reports the Detroit Free Press.

The power of local philanthropy | news @ Northeastern: Rebecca Riccio, director of the Social Impact Lab at North�eastern Uni�ver�sity, was recently asked to jus�tify the prac�tice of local phil�an�thropy in the United States when a dollar can go so much fur�ther in other countries.

In response, Riccio acknowl�edged the math behind that state�ment but empha�sized that local phil�an�thropy is much more than just a trans�ac�tional equa�tion. “I see local phil�an�thropy as a deeply held value, a trust, that is not just about money, but about engaging in and taking respon�si�bil�i�ties for our com�mu�ni�ties,” Riccio said.

In 2013, the final full year before the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), 85.47 percent of nonprofit s offered some kind of medical plan, a proportion that has grown slightly from 2010, when 84.70 percent did so. The number of nonprofits offering medical coverage to part-time employees also inched up during that period, from 23.06 percent to 23.63 percent.

Tackling Strategic Solutions for Nonprofits | LinkedIn: Today we launched our 6th annual Strategy Challenge, applying some of our best and brightest talent to collaborate on solving critical strategic challenges for nonprofit organizations. This year, teams of Morgan Stanley professionals will work with 12 U.S. nonprofit organizations and help them address a critical strategic need they face in fulfilling their missions. The work of the 12 nonprofits, based in New York and San Francisco, ranges from suicide prevention to youth education to support for children of incarcerated parents.

Non-Profit Technology Conference 2014 | Harvey McKinnon Associates: Many of us have heard that direct mail is dead, and online is the way to go. While that may be true in some industries, it couldn’t be further from the truth in fundraising. It is true that online giving is growing at a faster pace than DM (online giving grew by 13.5% in 2013), and now accounts for 6.4% of overall fundraising revenue. While this is still a small share it’s important that all organizations are prepared to deliver their fundraising message in today’s connected world.

Pamela Barden - Old Fundraising Ways, New Fundraising Ways : FundRaising Success: If you look back 20, 30 — OK, even two — years, you may see some fundraising practices that seem silly now that we have the perspective of time and experience on our side. That’s the fun of working in a field that isn’t just science; there’s plenty of “art” mixed in too. The challenge is knowing what’s what so we aren’t just running after every neat new thing or refusing to try anything new. A mistake either way can hurt our income, and therefore our mission fulfillment.

Challenges and Benefits of Nonprofit Event Fundraising | GuideStar Blog: pring is here and so is the event fundraising season! Events that raise money for causes and nonprofits can take many forms from 5k runs and walk-a-thons to endurance bike rides. In recent years, nonprofits have expanded these activities to include mud runs, polar plunges, even head-shaving! But just like any large undertaking, planning a fundraising event has its benefits and challenges. They can bring in a lot of revenue for the organization, but can also put tremendous strain on a nonprofit’s resources. The operations and logistics can test your organization’s limits; however, the reward can certainly outweigh the risk if executed correctly.

Sure, we don’t have the expendable income of you’re the boomers or matures. But we do have some money. And we tend to spend it in more concentrated doses instead of spreading it across multiple nonprofits. One of these nonprofits could be yours. Don’t write us off.
So how do you reach us?

Engage us. How do you engage us? Give us pictures. Yes, pictures. I know that, in a recent post, I discussed Charity:Water’s work with Instagram advertising; but, truly, what they are doing visually is absolutely breathtaking. Their photographs do not simply inform their viewers. These pictures tell a story. A story that drives action. A story that invokes change.

Perhaps a team of smiling people at a local shelter in branded t-shirts putting their hands together just before a “go team!” chant? Or maybe it’s a cheerful woman standing on a ladder with a paintbrush in hand? How about some slightly dirty but happy colleagues standing around the piles of bagged litter that they just spent a day cleaning up in a local park? These are the prevailing images of employees engaging with their communities. And while these images do reflect an important kind of volunteerism, they don’t come close to representing the full spectrum of innovative ways in which employees are now uniting with their companies, nonprofits, and each other to build and sustain healthy local communities. The truth is, the term “volunteering” needs an image makeover to reflect the new paradigm of employee engagement taking hold across the country.

A Year After The Boston Marathon Bombing, One Victim's Inspiring Startup-Business Story | Fast Company | Business Innovation: his week, North is launching the result: Artisan Connect, a startup that combines her passion for travel and traditional crafts with a long-brewing interest in social change. The company is an online marketplace where customers can shop for high-end home-decor products made by artisans in developing countries. Yet unlike charities that rely on donations to support artisans’ livelihoods, North envisioned her business as a for-profit venture that would provide craftspeople with a sustainable revenue source.

HOW TO ENTER: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. In order to enter, qualifying charities may go to the www.wtop.com website from Monday, April 7, through 11:59:59 p.m. on April 13, 2014 ("Entry Period"), click on "Contests" under the Living navigation bar and click on the Click for a Cause contest, or go to www.wtop.com/clickforacause or wtop.com/click4acause, and complete the entry form to nominate itself, which includes the following: name of charity, address of charity, charity website URL, charity telephone number, point of contact for the charity, up to 250 word description of the charity, charity size by annual total expenses, and a JPEG logo for the charit

Bay Area Internet billionaire Marc Benioff and his wife, Lynne, have donated $100-million to the University of California at San Francisco’s children’s hospital, their second nine-figure gift to the facility in four years, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

Studying the Role and Finances of Fundraising Galas among Jewish Organizations - NPQ - Nonprofit Quarterly: The Forward has been running a remarkable investigative series on Jewish philanthropy, and this week they are focused on the sometimes elaborate and expensive fundraising parties run by some Jewish charities. Altogether, write the authors, who looked into the finances of 3600 organizations, approximately $95 million was spent on these types of events for a return in event income of $139 million, excluding donations made at the events.

Now, they are working on a more robust mobile app, backed up in the cloud. One you could open up, put in the name of your event, check off attendance for your kids and then, throughout the event, while you used your device to take photos throughout the activity, they would all automatically be logged as part of that

Burnout: Time to Abandon a Very Costly Collective Delusion | LinkedIn: As I've been out on the road talking about Thrive, it's been inspiring meeting people and hearing their stories about how they're trying to navigate our culture of overwork and burnout. "I don't remember the last time I was not tired," one young woman told me after my conversation with Sheryl Sandberg at the San Francisco Symphony Hall. And many others -- men and women, young and old -- echo that same sentiment. Especially among the young ones, there is one question that has been coming up again and again, which is some variation of "hey, it's OK for you to say 'you don't need to burnout' now that you're already successful, but what about those of us just starting out who want to succeed?"

The main difference, in addition to the opening in January of a new store at a more convenient location that replaced a larger 14-year-old store 10 minutes away, has been customer service, says Dwayne Thompson, director of ReStore operatio